At its height, Artradis Fund Management grew to be one of the largest Asian hedge funds managing nearly $5bn. Now, that firm has transformed into something more closely resembling a family office, with some outside investment. The original team, including Steve Diggle, now manages the new iteration – Vulpes. Diggle recently spoke with Matthias Knab for Opalesque TV about why they made the transition and where they currently see new opportunities.

Artradis was originally a long Asian volatility fund. Diggle explains that after 2009, a lot of big name firms like AIG went short volatility and subsequently went out of business, as volatility prices increased, the upside to being long volatility became more muted driving Diggle and his team to look into other opportunities. Through Vulpes, the team expanded into five funds, including a broad range of investment types including private equity and physical assets.

The original long volatility fund still exists in addition to investments in public and private equity, a Russian investments fund and a life sciences fund. "One other thing that we have been doing that’s different is we have become more activist," Diggle says. He explains that as a pure hedge fund, the firm opted to stay away from that activist role, but now with investments in both public and private e......................